Currently, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a base station may deliver measurement configuration to user equipment (UE), and the UE sends a measurement report to the base station based on the measurement configuration. The base station determines, based on the measurement report that is reported by the UE, whether to control to hand over the UE between cells, and controls to hand over a terminal using an air interface resource.
With reference to FIG. 1, the following describes in detail a process in which the base station controls to hand over the UE between cells. FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart in which a base station controls to hand over connected UE between cells in a current system.
S101. A source cell base station sends measurement information to the UE, where the measurement information carries measurement configuration information, and the measurement information is used to instruct the UE to receive a downlink reference signal based on measurement configuration.
S102. The UE sends a measurement report to the source cell base station, where the measurement report is used to indicate a measurement result of the downlink reference signal received by the UE.
S103. The source cell base station determines, based on the measurement report that is reported by the UE, to hand over the UE to a target cell.
S104. The source cell base station sends a handover request message to a target cell base station, where the handover request message carries service information of the UE, so as to request the target cell base station to configure a resource for the UE.
S105. The target cell base station determines that the UE is allowed to be handed over to the target cell, and configures a radio resource for the UE based on the service information of the UE.
S106. The target cell base station sends a handover response to the source cell base station, where the handover response carries information about the radio resource configured for the UE, so as to notify the source cell base station that the UE is allowed to be handed over to the target cell.
S107. The source cell base station sends a handover notification to the UE, where the handover notification carries the information about the radio resource configured by the target cell base station for the UE.
S108. The UE synchronizes with the target cell base station based on the handover notification.
In other words, when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE needs to cooperate with a network to perform signal measurement and handover.
However, development of a 5G network starts a trend towards high-density cell deployment. A mobile subscriber is frequently handed over, and a handover operation is frequently performed between the network and UE. As a result, a tremendous waste of network signaling and air interface resources is caused.
Therefore, a technology needs to be provided to reduce the tremendous waste of network signaling and air interface resources caused when the UE is handed over between cells.